Possible Reasons Why You’re Not Getting Stronger

Strength is the prize and you’re plugging away in the gym day after day lifting big but you see little, if any, progress. This can be super frustrating and understandably hard to figure out, so this article is here to help with a handful of reasons why you might not be getting stronger and what to do about it.

1. You don’t have a defined goal and your program or lack of program reflects that.

The body adapts well but it adapts really well to specific demands. This means if you want to get strong you need to define what you want to get strong at doing, and picking “everything” is a good way to be okay at a lot but not great at anything. If you want to get strong at a specific thing you can design a program around that movement and build it to the best you can. If getting generally strong, that’s okay, just be sure you’re not comparing your progress to somebody with a specific training program.

2. Not progressing your training in any way.

There is two sides to this one. You don’t increase the difficulty of your training at all, or you change your training too much. What you should try is starting with a lift that is pretty hard but not max difficulty and increase either the weight (ideally), reps (second best), sets, how often you train the lift, tempo of your reps, or reduce rest periods every week or two.

3. Not recovering enough.

Taking time off to recover from the stress training puts on your body is super important to getting stronger. Pairing that with as much good quality sleep as you can and you’ll be making strength gains in no time. Rest days allow you body to adapt to the training you’ve done, they don’t have to be sit around days but no more than light physical activity. Sleep is by far one of the most important things we do for our health, getting good quality sleep will make you recover faster, feel better, and therefore make you stronger faster. To set you up for the best sleep you can, turn off all screens 30-60 minutes before bed, keep your room cool, and as dark as possible.

4. Eat enough to support your activity.

What you eat directly supports the activity you do. I remember hearing in a podcast a triathlete say something like “If you fuel me I can train all day”. So when it comes to your training being at maintenance calories or a slight surplus can give you the upper hand when it come to making progress. Try to hit and adequate amount of proteins for muscle building and recovery, fats for hormone function, and carbohydrates for high levels of energy especially if you do longer workouts.

5. Going too hard too often.

Maxing out is fun and you might get away with doing it frequently in the beginning but as you get more advanced in your lifting career maxing out all the time is killing your gains. Maxing out is really not good for building muscle because of how little you can do, and having more muscle gives you the potential for more strength, it also is highly fatiguing and as you get stronger it will be even worse to the point your bodies ability to teach the muscles to produce more force becomes affected. Doing more submaximal training will let you get both more muscle and teach your body to move better, and max out 2-4 times per year depending on how advanced you are.

If you follow these 5 tips I’m confident you’ll be making strength gains for years to come. Chances are if you’re new to training you’re making great progress be proud of yourself and try not to compare yourself to others. If you are more advanced it’s perfectly normal to only hit a 5-10lb PR every few months, sometimes even 2lb is great if it’s a more technical lift. Have fun with your lifting, and enjoy the process because a fitness lifestyle never ends!